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Reviews

“[A] haunting hybrid of memoir and true crime account… The dual narratives are infinitely layered, as Marzano-Lesnevich allows for each person’s motivations and burdens to unspool through the pages. Her writing is remarkably evocative and taut with suspense, with a level of nuance that sets this effort apart.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“As her subtitle implies, true-crime writer and essayist Marzano-Lesnevich here combines two genres, and the result is surprising, suspenseful, and moving. The subject matter is difficult, and the author doesn’t shy away from graphic descriptions, but readers are rewarded with a book that defies both its genres, turning into something wholly different and memorable.”—Booklist (starred review)

“She poses a greater philosophical and legal question of one’s past and how that determines cause in an exquisite and thought-provoking comparison study. The writing is superb and gripping and never heavy-handed on the legal jargon, creating a moving must-have for any collection.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“This book is a marvel. With unflinching precision and immense compassion, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich peels apart both a murder case and her own experience to reveal how we try to make sense of the past. The Fact of a Body is equal parts gripping and haunting and will leave you questioning whether any one story can hold the full truth.”―Celeste Ng, author of the New York Times bestselling Everything I Never Told You

“The balancing act here performed between autobiography and journalism, documentary and imagination, witnessing and reckoning, the tender and the terrible, is shrewd and graceful. In the hands of a lesser human or writer, it could have all fallen apart; instead, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich has given us an exquisite and exquisitely difficult work of art that makes a fierce claim on our attention, conscience, and heart.”— Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts

“A fascinating hybrid of true crime and memoir, TheFact of a Body is intricately constructed, emotionally raw, and unflinching. Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich has written a gripping meditation on memory, justice, and the limits of empathy.”―Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers, The Abstinence Teacher, Little Children, and other novels

“The Fact of a Body is a remarkable act of witness, an anatomy of silence and the violence it abets, a book of both public and private accountings. Rejecting the false comfort of certainty, it confronts the inadequacy of all our tools for fathoming not just unforgivable crimes, but the baffling, human grace that can forgive them. This is a profound and riveting book.”― Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You

“The Fact of a Body is unlike any murder story I’ve ever read, a masterpiece of both reportage and memoir, a book that could only be written by an author with Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich’s staggering gifts: a relentless reporter with a law degree from Harvard, a poet’s understanding of the cadence of a line, and a novelist’s gift for empathy. Walter Benjamin famously said that all great works of art either dissolve a genre or invent one. This book does both, and its greatness is undeniable.”―Justin St. Germain, author of Son of a Gun